Coach Interview: Kevin Snyder

Kevin Snyder was born on June 26. Kevin is a cultural history teacher for grade 9, grade 10 and AP US History. Moreover, he coaches girls and boys tennis. Kevin is from Medina, NY and he graduated from Allegheny College where he played on the varsity tennis team for four years. While Kevin was on the team, they were the highest ranked team in his school’s history. In addition to that, they earned Academic Team Honors three out his four years there. Kevin Snyder was named to the ITA ALL-Academic Team his junior year. Kevin graduated from Allegheny College in 2014 and his major was Political Science and Communication Arts. Throughout Kevin’s career, there has always been something that inspired him to play and coach tennis – his family. ‘’Tennis was our family sport. My dad and uncle both played for my high school's team and were two of the best to play coming out of my hometown. I looked up to them a lot and worked hard to establish myself as my own type of player and make a name for myself on the courts. I think what inspired me every day was my teammates and working hard to not let them down. In college, that continued, as I worked hard in practice all the time to push my team to be better and better than we thought we could be. We played in one of the toughest tennis conferences in the country and everybody on the team needed to be tough and focused towards our goals. Now that I'm a coach, seeing my players have success due to their hard work, brings me the most inspiration. Watching one of my players get a tough three-set victory or win a match that they had lost previously in the season is always a big positive and inspirational.’’ Kevin thinks that the most difficult part of coaching is managing the team and making sure that all the players moving towards their goals. The biggest accomplishment in his coaching career was when Jonas Linnman-Feuerring '17 and Gonzalo Trapote '16 advanced to the State Tennis Tournament in 2016. They had an incredible run during the playoffs, winning some tough matches and being able to go to the State Tournament. Kevin also mentioned that in order to improve as a coach, there are always other tennis coaches that he can learn from or get a good advice for his team.

Kevin Snyder has been a role model for many students and teachers. Moreover, he is one of the most hardworking teachers at Ross.